Filtering by Tag: yu e bao

China Money Market Fund Yields

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Nice chart from HSBC of the yields of Yu'e Bao (Alibaba), Licaitong (TenCent), and Baifa Baizhuan (Baidu). Still convenient but yields less compelling ... and deposits capped at one million RMB mean no big depositors can take advantage of them.

Money Market Fund Growth in China

Added on by C. Maoxian.

A chart from HSBC, but I don't know how accurate it is ... Yu'e Bao has over 500 billion in assets now from zero last June ... that would take the chart from 400 to 900 ... I'm not sure where the other 500-600 billion is coming from since Yu'e Bao's competitors are relatively small.

Moving to T+1 Settlement

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From DBS Vickers:

Increasing AUM size is putting pressure on operation costs and redemptions as money market funds usually have to set aside 5-10% of assets as a liquidity reserve to prepare for redemptions. Looking at Yu'e Bao’s better liquidity due to support from Alipay, we assume a 5% reserve ratio to arrive at a liquidity reserve of Rmb25bn while daily average idle funding parked at Alipay is about Rmb30- 40bn. Yu'e Bao may hit the assets under management limit of Rmb1trn in the near term based on our estimates. In view of rising liquidity risks, Yu'e Bao announced in April that it will delay withdrawals of >Rmb50,000 to T+1 settlement if made before 5pm or T+2 settlement if made after 5pm. Other online money market funds such as Tencent’s Li Cai Tong or Baidu’s Baizhuan are also adopting T+1 settlements now.


Intensifying Competition for Deposits

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From an April 9, 2014 note from Macquarie:

95% of Yu E Bao’s money is invested in agreement deposits (协议存款), which are not subject  to RRR (Required Reserve Ratio). The ultimate outcome of interest rate liberalization is for regulated interest rates to go up and unregulated interest rates (e.g., returns of private lending, Yu E Bao) to come down, implying better financial resource allocation and stabilized rates over the long term.

Yu E Bao products do not represent financial innovation by nature but take advantage of policy arbitrages by investing in interbank negotiated deposits. In comparison, US money market funds mostly invested in risky assets that are not involved in money creation in the banking system.

These Internet products in China, although limited in size (Rmb500bn vs. total deposit base of Rmb105tr), enjoyed rapid growth this year and posed pressure for banks to increase rates in the competition for deposits, thus pushing up the cost of capital in the whole system. The policymakers, therefore, suggest regulating the Internet Finance products by requiring deposit reserves. Assuming 20% of the Internet money market funds are submitted as reserves at the PBOC in exchange for a return of 1.62%, yields on the “Yu E Bao” will come down by at least one percentage point.

While interest rate liberalization will inevitably bring down NIMs, we believe the market has been overly bearish on the long-term impact on banks’ profitability. In addition, potential regulations on the Internet money market funds may help relieve some pressure for banks suffering from intensifying competition for deposits and high cost of capital. 

If you read Chinese, this is of interest: 什么是存款准备金管理